


drive like a demon

by flibbertygigget



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Spy Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 16:51:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17729093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: When Snape returns, it isn't as James knew him.





	drive like a demon

When Snape returns, it isn't as James knew him.

The greasy Slytherin had disappeared after - well, after their fifth year. After Sirius' so-called prank with Moony. After Snape had shown his true colors with that word.

James had wondered, sometimes, whether he should have felt some guilt about how it had all turned out. He'd known that Snape was still alive, of course. Every so often Lily would receive and subsequently burn a letter addressed to her in that familiar spidery handwriting. So James knew that Snape was alive, just like he knew that the bastard probably hadn't gone Dark if he was still trying to reconcile with a Muggleborn.

Just like he knew that, if Snape hadn't become a Death Eater, then all his bravado had been aimed against nothing.

James usually brushed his guilt aside quickly enough. There was no time for crises of conscience in a time of war. But still, there was always that niggling doubt - and it's enough that, when he opens the front door to find Snape on the other side, James doesn't slam it in his face immediately.

"Snape," he says instead, "what are you even doing here?" Snape is silent for a moment, dark eyes unfathomable.

"You haven't been getting my letters, have you?" he says.

"Oh, we've been getting them. Lily's just been burning them." Hurt momentarily flashes across Snape's face, but it disappears so quickly that James almost thinks he imagined it.

"May I speak with her? With both of you? It's a matter of great importance, I assure you."

"Sure. Come in," James says. One of Snape's eyebrows raise, and James has to admit that even he is shocked by the invitation he's blurted out. "Lily's out at the moment, but-"

"I can wait," Snape says. James sits down on the couch. Snape sits across from him in the armchair, and James can't help but try and study him more closely.

Snape at twenty is like an exaggeration of Snape at sixteen. He's taller, thinner, more angled - but instead of the twitchiness that had defined his demeanor at school there's something about him that seems poised, almost regal. When James stares, Snape stares right back, and James wonders what the other man is seeing.

"Tea?" James says loudly, trying to force himself from his thoughts.

"No thank you," Snape says. Then, after a short pause, "You said that Lily was burning my letters?"

"Yeah," James says. "So? She has every right to."

"I suppose it is better than the alternative."

"Huh?"

"The alternative. That someone realized I was contacting you and intercepted the damn things." A knot tightens in James' stomach.

"So you went Dark after all."

"Not in the way you're thinking. I'm not a Death Eater. We simply... run in the same circles. I make their potions - the more dubious ones at least - and I go to their parties. I hear things." James feels his mouth go dry. "I send the important bits on."

"Why us?" he says.

"Well, I wasn't sending it to you, was I? And Lily was only one of the people I was trying to contact. Fortunately, Professor McGonagall wrote back."

"She made you into a spy," James says. "That's - Snape, that's _unbelievably_ risky."

"I made myself into a spy," Snape corrects. "And yes. I had noticed." If Snape had removed his own face to reveal a stranger underneath, James could have hardly been more shocked.

"Why are you here, then?" he says. "You have your handler."

"I would prefer to only tell the whole thing once."

"I lied," James says. "Lily isn't here because she's at her parents' funeral. She won't be back until Monday." Snape's silence is long and dangerous.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he says at last. "Mr. And Mrs. Evans always tried to be kind to me."

"Tried?" Something flits across Snape's face, the shadow of a sense of humor.

"There's only so much folks like hers can stomach of folks like me," he says. "You'd know, of course. You could stomach even less." Something unpleasant squirms in James' chest.

"It wasn't like that-"

"Oh, it was. Might not have been by the end, but at the beginning it was. There you were, in all your glory, and you couldn't imagine that this grubby little kid from a Black Country slum was there to sully your Hogwarts." James opens his mouth, unsure of what he could possibly say, but Snape shoots him down with a glare. "Don't apologize. I know you don't regret it."

"Then why are you talking to me, huh? If I'm this - this _thing_ you resent?"

"I don't resent you," Snape says. "And I'm not here for you."

"So it's about Lily, is it?" James snarls. "Well, hate to break it to you, Sniv, but she's married to _me_." Snape rolls his eyes.

"Not everything's about you and your dick, Potter. I'm here for Lily, yes, but as her former best friend."

"Oh, come on, we all knew what you wanted. It was pathetic, the way you'd skulk around her."

"Well, I won't deny I had a crush at one point, but that is neither here nor there. The point is, Potter, that I am trying to save your family's life." James' stomach clenches.

"What?" he says. He's half hoping that Snape will laugh and say this was all some ill-conceived joke, but the other man looks deathly serious. "Seriously?"

"There have been whispers, Potter. Apparently there has been a prophecy, one that You-Know-Who has decided to take seriously. Your family - your unborn child is one of the few it could apply to. You-Know-Who plans to hunt you all down and kill you."

"Why are you telling me this?" Snape leans forward.

"I told McGonagall that there's been a leak, but I haven't heard a word about it since. Judging by your reaction, Dumbledore has chosen to wait and see which way the wind blows. But I have no desire to see your family put in any more danger than you already are."

"And what's your plan?"

"The prophecy," Snape says slowly, "has a few prerequisites. Most of them we can do nothing about, but one... When is Lily's due date?"

"It's the second week of July, but what's the got to do with-"

"Good. That makes this all much easier."

"What are you on about?"

"Potter, there are ways - even Muggles have them - to induce a woman into labor at a specific time. The prophecy states that it can only be fulfilled by a baby born at the end of July, or at least that's how You-Know-Who has interpreted it. What you and Lily are going to do is ensure that you child is born at the beginning of July instead. The first week, just so that there can be no doubt."

"Snape, that's insane! What if the prophecy-"

"Trust me, unless you want You-Know-Who hunting you down like animals, you'll put any thoughts of fulfilling the prophecy out of your mind. No good can come from it."

"I wasn't going to say that." Snape shoots him a doubtful look. "Really! I wasn't!"

"I'll make the damn potion myself if I have to. This is our fight, not our children's."

"You really mean that, don't you?" James says, his voice unsteady.

"Of course I do," Snape says. "I wouldn't have risked coming here if I hadn't." James heaves a sigh.

"Fine. I'll talk to Lily about it at least." Snape gives him a solemn nod.

"That's all I'm asking," he says. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

"More families to save?" James says lightly.

"Just one, actually. The Longbottoms." James blinks as Snape stands, smoothing out his robes. "Until we meet again, Potter."

"Uh, bye," James says, but Snape has already Disapperated.


End file.
